Songbird is an open source media client with tight web integration that is designed by Pioneers of the Inevitable, a San Francisco-based company whose previous efforts include WinAmp and the Yahoo Music Engine. Songbird is still in early stages of development, but is already quite usable on the desktop. Version 0.5 was released late last month with MTP device support and user interface improvements.

As of version 0.5, current features are: Cross platform compatibility with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X (PPC, Intel), Sun Solaris x86 and Linux (Intel). Ability to play multiple audio formats, such as MP3, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and Windows Media Audio. Able to play Apple FairPlay-encoded audio on Windows and Mac platforms via hooks into QuickTime (authorization takes place in iTunes). Able to play Windows Media DRM audio on Windows platforms. A skinnable interface, via feathers. Media files stored on pages viewed in the browser show up as playable files in Songbird. Built-in RSS subscription and MP3 file download. The ability to subscribe to MP3 blogs as playlists. User-created bookmarks. Ability to build custom mixes. Ability to scan the user's computer for all audio files and add them to a local library. A configurable and collapsible graphical user interface similar to iTunes, and miniplayer mode. Keyboard shortcuts & media keyboard support. Automatic updates. eMusic integration using the eMusic Integration plugin. Insound.com and HypeMachine integration. Microsoft MTP compatible device support.